Okay, my son arrived home for work one night, only to see a little guy sneak through a previously undetected small hole in my home's cedar plank siding. What's a squeamish girl to do? No evidence of the little buggers in the home's interior yet, but I am occasionally hearing their notorious pitter patter. :(

I don't know what to use and how to avoid dead rodents in my walls. Any advice?

Whatever you do, don't use poison, that's what gets you the dead mice in the walls. Unfortunately, that's about the only way you can get rid of them without having to see them...any sort of trap you buy you're going to have to dispose of the mice that are caught (I prefer live traps since I don't like hurting animals...but if you want them dead snap traps are supposedly less cruel than glue traps since they kill them right away). Someone on another thread mentioned that peppermint oil repels them, so you could try that to keep them from coming in.

You could also pay for an exterminator--just make sure that they're not going to use poison. I think you can pay them to set up the traps and then come back and empty them. They can also check around the outside of your house and seal up holes that critters can get in through (mice can get in through any hole that's the size of a quarter or larger) Or if your house is on a slab foundation like mine, it's not too hard to go around the outside yourself and look for holes where they could be getting in and seal them up.

I bait my mouse traps with a raisin dipped in peanut butter. The mice smell the peanut butter, but have to tug at the raisin, thus setting off the trap. I've tried just peanut butter, but they just eat it all and leave the trap unsprung!

A client of mine..plagued with mice .. feeding on nuts and seeds with the birds in 4 large cages.. wanted a non poison removal.. after sealing up holes.we set out saucers and little containers of ammonia.. Guess it smells just like a really big cat.. whose box smells just like ammonia.. A cat box so mmonia so strong... this must be the residence of a really big hungry cat.. stay away.. it seemed to help alot... no poison.. no traps.. and no dead mice.. just ones driven away.. don't guess it convinced every mouse.. but it was quie effective.. Gordon

My family has been in the pest control business for over 50 years. The best bait we've ever found was a thin strip of bacon fat (uncooked) tied on to the trap, then take a lighter and cook it a bit. The mouse will tug on the bacon and the snap trap will trigger. If you are lucky, you should be able to use the trap again without re-baiting. Please wear rubber gloves when removing the dead mouse.

With sticky traps, you can carefully pick them up by the edge while wearing a cheap pair of rubber gloves and pitch the whole thing into a paper bag, gloves and all. Now you must know, the mouse may make squealing noises, so consider that if you decide to go this way. Also, a mouse cannot be pulled off the trap to be let go outside.

Mice like to run with their shoulder against a wall, so traps should be placed near the woodwork, not out in the open.

Steel wool stuffed into open holes is an excellent way to block entrances until a permanent repair can be made.